Better Spellcrafting

Existing spellcrafting mods limit what spell effects you can use, and the range of magnitudes and abilities.This mod does not have this limit because of a new SKSE Plugin I made.So, basically it's better than what's currently available is what I'm saying.

Currently I only have it implemented in GUISE with 5 custom spell slots. But I might release a standalone version later today with more slots later, after all the details are ironed out.

Definitely make this standalone. It fits to be packaged in with GUISE well enough, but I think this deserves its own mod.

EDIT: And definitely publish a version that doesn't edit the perk tree. Should always be optional. Or do like you so often do and make one that doesn't edit the perk tree but lets you take the perks from the MCM. If you haven't already, that is.

Installed 2.01 and it's working now. I made a spell which deals 10x damage compared to Flame and it consumes approx. 12x magicka (I guess you configured it to consume proportionally more magicka for balancing?).

I see. I thought it was strange that it prompted me twice about an action (first with the header "Select Thu'um" and "Spellcrafting" after that) but I thought it was some kind of workaround to make thu'um into spell.

modderhumor

Very interesting! And just a few days, after I revived the old spellcrafting mod, man, I feel bummed.

Well, not exactly, since from what I read, the spells need to have the same delivery type, so you cannot create a spell that heals you and shoots a fireball, right?

I was trying to do exactly that with the regular SetNthEffectMagnitude/duration/etc, but quickly found out that it doesn't replace the cost of a spell - I presume this works? Can you create a model spell with 1 magnitude/1 duration/1 area and then scale it, and it will have its cost calculated correctly?

I've edited the post so maybe you've missed it. If you use the regular SetNth whatever, the cost of the spell doesn't change, it is not updated. So if you create a "model" spell with 1 dur/1 mag/ 1 area and let script set them them to more, then the cost won't change. In other words, can your mod recreate the autocalculate function from CK?

Yeah there were still some kinks to iron out. A lot of spell behavior doesn't work as I would have expected when you start making spells you normally couldn't or wouldn't make in the CK.

Hopefully I caught the brunt of it today. I uploaded an updated Grimy Plugin with the fixes. Cost should scale properly with magnitude and duration. It's not exactly the vanilla equation, but in my testing it seems to be close enough. And I've restricted casting time multipliers to only affect fire and forget spells. Concentration spells it seems, has a charging time parameter that I could perhaps uncover in the next update.

While Grimy has done an amazing job here, there's definitely room for more than one spellcrafting mod. For instance, Grimy's mod does not integrate it in with the game world (via an alter, quest, or whatever else), unlike the mod you inherited. It would be cool if you updated the mod you inherited using the SKSE plugin Grimy made to improve the technical functionality, integrating that functionality into the game world for people that prefer that approach. Some people will prefer Grimy's hotkey/magic menu based approach, and some people will prefer other approaches. There's a lot of other cool places where people will prefer different things (such as the cost function, animations, etc etc).

Stick with it! I for one would totally use an improved version of the mod you inherited!

Because I tried to make a spell with Firebolt (my original intention was fireball but I was too lazy to get it) + Summon Flame Atronach and it denied. Might be because Summoning is complex thing (from what I learned on the Summoning Rune thread posted here a few days ago).

Technically firebolt and summon flame atronach are different delivery types.

Firebolt is considered "aimed" and flame atronach is considered "target location"

But if I were to actually allow you to put the two effects on the same spell, it would probably at least do something. I'm not sure if it would do exactly what was intended. Perhaps I'll release an unrestricted spellcrafting thing later :p

Unfortunately I'm not at my PC to actually test this but some initial feedback based on the video and the tiny description XD

One, please no hotkeys. As a controller user the fact that mod authors are constantly binding things to hotkeys instead of alternative methods is very tedious and actually puts me off from using some mods because I simply literally don't have the buttons for them. I think this would work better if you could make a crafting station of some sort for it, or if it worked as a power, or some other sort of menu activation. Much more compatible for people who use controllers.

Secondly, editing the perk tree means a lot of people won't be able to use it because it will be so widely incompatible with a lot of very popular mods. Depending on what the perks are (I don't see a description of them anywhere :/ ) you might be able to get around it by maybe looking at the skill level of the mage trees, so say once all of them are at 40 you unlock basic spell crafting etc or something like that.

Other the that looks great and the added compatibility is always nice. I do think I personally prefer the cantrips implementation from Spell Crafting in Skyrim better simply because it's a bit more in depth and actually has drawbacks, but for a basic alternative this looks great.

I just generally don't compromise in ways that would make my personal experience using the mod worse. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

Anyways, the only other implementation that would work to acquire spells without hotkeys would require the player to equip the spells and activate some altar. And I'm just not in the market to re-implement it that way right now, I've got other stuff I plan to work on.

That's fair enough, in the end its your mod and if you don't enjoy your own mod then you aren't going to want to work on it and then that just defeats the entire purpose of changing the mechanic because then no progress gets made on it at all :)

This looks interesting. Could you make a video showing some more examples, maybe with some spells from Apocalypse and Lost Grimoire? Also, will the mod work with overhauls like Perkus Maximus and Requiem?

It should work with any spell from any mod, as long as that spell appears in your spell menu. Not really in the market to demo spells from other mods right now :P.

As for GUISE, it should work, but you will want to know how to delete the actor value info section with TES5edit to pick the perk tree you want. You can, for example, delete GUISE's perk tree, in which case you can still access GUISE's perks via the MCM menu.

I do plan to release a standalone version of spellcrafting without GUISE though. But I want to iron out any bugs in the current GUISE version first. To save myself the effort of fixing bugs on both versions simultaneously.

Holy crap, this is a great technical feat and a definite gift to the community. Great job, and thank you.

If we wanted to understand or tweak how the resulting magnitudes, costs, or durations are calculated, how would we go about doing that? I.e. how do we understand or customize the inner workings of MergeSpells function?

You can't really customize the inner workings of mergespell, it's really something I designed with features and balance in mind specifically for what I had in mind. Because there are certainly many other ways to "merge" a spell.

If you want to customize the inner workings, you'll need to make your own SKSE plugin or ask me nicely :p

As for how it works:

MagMult, DurMult, and CostMult all multiply the magnitudes/durations/costs of all magic effects in the corresponding spell.

CastTime is different. CastTime alters cast time, but ALSO multiplies MagMult and CostMult ontop of the magMult/CostMult arrays you input. BUT it checks if the spell has recover tags, or is a value modifier. And determines whether the spell is a buff based spell or not. If it is determined to be a buff based spell, Cast Time does nothing to magnitude or cost.

This is so cool! I had so much fun combining things (like making a Waterball + Lightning Bolt spell), and also combining things that shouldn't be allowed to be combined (like Battle Cry + Flame Cloak).

Out of curiosity, I don't suppose someone could use that SKSE Plugin you made to apply that spell weaving into enchantments? (Well, with the intention of making Enhance Weapon spells.)

Nope, just an idea I had, a spell for getting our of messy situations. I'm upgrading my GUISE now, my mage is still low level so probably won't benefit from it now, but I'm looking forward on trying some stuff. Does it work with spells from mods?

If this is commonly known, wouldn't LOOT automatically adjust the load order position of mods where this is relevant? I have a big load order and never had this issue come up but maybe it's because LOOT takes care of it.

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